advantage of cantilver mount?

[DeskTopWarrior]

I'm shopping for optics and mounts and have been wondering what a cantilever scope mount is for. This may be a stupid question but my user name should give you an idea of my level of experience. I'm just a member of an unofficial shooting club, looking to dress up my Armalite 15A4C in a practical way. I'm considering a Burris XTS-135 or if I can come up with the cash an Aimpoint COMPML2. Any advice?

[bigcoastie]

A cantilever mount gives you a few things.

First it gives you more rail space by pushing the optic out forward and since you probably will never have anything other than an optic taking up that space you give yourself more room behind the optic this allows you to put a magnifier NV or a standard buis that doesn't flip down.

It also gives your weapon a different center of balance, which isn't always a good thing because you are putting more weight further out you "could" make your rifle front heavy or it could be absolutely perfect I doubt it will be something that is very noticeable but if you feel like your weapon system is front heavy as it is now w/o an optic it might be something to take a look at.

The last thing is that it allows you to have a larger FOV since the optic appears smaller the further forward it is thus taking up less space overall as opposed to something mounted further back. I think this is the biggest advantage since I'm never going to be able to afford NV and I don't care for magnifiers that much.

Here's a good example of a non cantilever with an optic and 3x w/o a buis (4th one down) and a cantilever w/ 3x w/ a buis (3rd one down).

[Stickman]

A cantilever is a big deal if you want to use NV, but for most shooters, they are nice because they throw the red dot out a little farther, which helps to reduce tunnel vision.

[federalist22]

Some people are sort of religious on the use of either an Aimpoint and EOTech. One of the biggest complaints I hear about Aimpoint is that it's like looking through a scope and causes tunnel vision--like Stickman said--whereas the EOTech is like looking through a window and allows you to get a clearer picture while engaging with both eyes open. Using a cantilever mount helped a friend of mine become a little more open-minded and he was able to adopt Aimpoint for a recent build, although his other platforms sport an EOTech. Getting the sight out front more broke his tunnel vision stigma of Aimpoint--and he likes it a lot.